Got The Claptrap - Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Borderlands! Apparently lots of people like it, I just happen not to know many of them. A quick RPS-chat whip round revealed a startling apathy for its cell-shaded comedy and endless weaponry. I feel like I really should love it, but just can’t get past how boring it is to play. It gains a little from co-op, clearly the supposed strength of its formula, but a game would need to be extraordinarily bad not to be fun with a group of friends.

The baitingly-titled Pre-Sequel doesn’t look to be changing much of that. It’s low-grav gimmicks and the series’ best-known characters placed in what we’ve seen before. As lazy as it is to say: if you liked that, presumably you’ll feel similarly about this. Check with the Gamescom trailer below.

It’s not all bad. I do like their trailers, particularly the music. I have a soft spot for the world as a whole too, it’s plucky and humourous in a way most future-space fictions aren’t. The characters help, all of them wonderful combinations of sci-fi and western caricatures. It’s why Tales From The Borderlands has me much more interested than another RPG-lite FPS instalment. There’s real potential, much of it unrealised, in the dark comedy universe Gearbox has built.

If you’ve still joy and love for the series in your heart, it’s out October 17th in the UK, three days after the long trip from space North America.